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“I'll take a strawberry cone.”
“Blackberry.”
“I'll have Peppermint, if it's available.”
“Chocolate with marshmallows!”
Blake raised an eyebrow out of slight amusement at Ruby's choice. “Have you ever chosen the same thing twice?”
Ruby's only response was to grin broadly as Yang forked over the cash. Qrow had loaned them a few bucks for ice cream tonight, considering they had finished an epic side quest involving mutant Grimm. So. Cool.
That, of course, meant that everyone was there.
Cinder had already sat down with her Cherry Cone while Neo and Roman were going halfsies on a Neapolitan Banana Split. Team JNPR were still waiting for half their cones, Ren was already sipping a pink slushie while Nora was working on destroying a positively large Cotton Candy ice cream cone. Jaune was still waiting for his Cake Batter cone along with Pyrrha, who had apparently decided on Caramel Apple.
Bottom line- the poor two people working the ice cream place were swamped with orders.
Ruby bounced back to her seat, right next to Roman while Yang took the other side. Roman and Neo were currently mock sword fighting with their spoons. Cinder glanced up at them. “She's going to be bouncing off the walls all night, isn't she?” She asked Yang, pointing to Ruby's cone.
Yang snickered. “Don't worry, I'll make her race home. And then a few times around the block.”
“Totally worth it.” It was chocolate! Delicious, delicious chocolate with the heavenly blessing of marshmallows!
Weiss had ordered the mint, but instead had it in a bowl. She twirled the spoon between her fingers before taking a bite. “At least we're not the ones trapped with her.” At that moment, Nora slid onto the remaining bench and nearly fell off, Ren catching her last second. “… Or her.”
“Cotton candy and ice cream is the best. Combination. Ever! Whoever invented it should totally get a Nobel prize, they combined what is the best sweets ever-” Ren gently pushed Nora's hand towards her mouth and then Nora was distracted by the ice cream, once again.
Roman wiped some ice cream off the corner of Neo's mouth before looking up at Cinder. “So, Cin, you have a place for Neo to jump into the campaign?”
“It's in the works.” Cinder worked in mysterious ways, and no one knew her plots until she wanted them to know. Much to the annoyance of Roman, who was by far the nosiest man that Ruby had ever met. Not saying they didn't along though. Roman had turned into the big brother she'd never had, even if he was a bit of a jerk sometimes.
“Heeelllllooo, looks like the ice cream parlor just got a bit better looking.” Yang grinned and jerked her head in the direction of the parlor windows. Ruby glanced over… right. Boys. All of the girls minus Cinder had glanced over, and even Blake seemed a bit, well, blushy.
A blond guy with a shirt hanging completely open (it was a warm night, so it was unsurprising) and a taller thin one with blue hair were chilling at the pick up window. Ruby supposed they were cute? Kinda? She had no reference for this.
Thankfully Cinder had kept her sanity, looking up for only a second before going back to her ice cream, unimpressed. “Oh. Sun and Neptune. Figured they'd be back in town soon.”
“You know them!?” Weiss looked envious, it must be the taller guy with blue hair. Ruby had totally guessed her type.
Cinder shrugged. “They also play Remnant, and I'm quite the extraordinary Game Master. Of course I've met them. They usually have Sage and Scarlet around too.”
“Are you saying there's a team of pretty boys that play Remnant and you haven't told us about them?” Yang looked heavily betrayed.
So did Jaune. “Uh, I'm here? And I'm… pretty?” Roman snorted and almost choked on his ice cream, causing the two boys to look over.
“Yo, Cinder!” The blond strutted over, Blake turning a bit red as he seemed to make room to sit by her. “How's things? Run any cool campaigns?”
“Sun.” Cinder lowered her spoon, managing a pleasant smile. “You could say that. I'm having another game you could jump into next week, how would you and Neptune feel about that?”
Neptune looked a bit bummed as he leaned against the table. “I'm busy, I'll have to miss it! Bummer. Sun, go for me, I think they'll need a gentleman after Roman.”
Roman looked up from Neo and glared. “Excuse me, I am a perfect gentleman, ask Ruby!”
Ruby snickered. “Uhhhh… I'm out. Sorry man.”
“Betrayed by the child. What next, Neo?”
Neo lifted her white board. 'I get to finish off the ice cream?'
The conversation slowly dulled into the background for Ruby, she was more focused on the ice cream than so many people. Neptune was flirting with Weiss, and Sun was apparently really hitting it off with both Yang and Blake. Cool guys, she supposed.
Darn. The ice cream was gone. She wiggled out of the over crowded bench to throw away the napkins and cone paper. There was no need for that paper, everyone ate the cone anyway! She skipped over and threw them into the trash can, a perfect shot.
“Good job! I say that is ten out of ten!”
Ruby turned to the voice and ended up nearly bumping right into another girl. “Oh! Wow! Hi, you're right there.”
“Yes. Yes I was.” The girl smiled brightly, and Ruby realized that smile was immediately contagious.
She was only a little taller than Ruby, with orange hair in a pretty pink bow and the most startling bright green eyes. She waved. “Salutations! My name is Penny. What is your name?”
“Uh, Ruby.” Wow, and people said Ruby was happy. “Are you here to get ice cream?”
“Oh, yes I am!” Penny grinned again before looking at the board. “I'm not sure what to get though…”
Ruby glanced over the board again as well. “Well, chocolate marshmallow is always pretty great.”
Penny wrinkled her nose. “I'm not sure if I will like that very much. No, I don't think so, thank you for helping me though. I think I will just get vanilla. I like vanilla.”
She was a little weird, wasn't she? Ruby didn't mind though. “No problem, friend. I'm gonna go back to my sister now, I hope you enjoy your ice cream.”
Ruby slipped away real quick and back to the group. Weiss glanced up. “Who was that?”
The girl shrugged. “I dunno, she was nice though.”
Roman glanced up and surprise crossed his face. “Uh, Red?”
“What?”
Roman pointed right behind her.
Aaaand there was Penny again! Ruby nearly jumped out of her skin, while Penny seemed to be only focused on one thing. “Did you call me friend?”
“Uhhhhhhh…” Ruby.exe has stopped working.
Roman starting snickering quietly when he stopped as apparently he got kicked. Considering it was Yang glaring, you could guess the culprit. “Ow! Gee, that was overkill…”
Ruby managed to boot her brain back online and she smiled. “Sure, yeah?”
Penny looked truly pleased. “People don't call me friend! Are these your other friends? Why is he in pain?” She pointed at Roman, who just smiled sheepishly.
“Oh, that's Roman. I think he just stuck his foot in his mouth again.” It wasn't uncommon. “We all play a game together, it's called Remnant? It's how we all know each other.”
“Fantastic!” Penny looked back up at the counter, where someone was waving frantically to get her attention. “Oh, I must go, after I pick up my ice cream my father wants me home. Goodbye, friend Ruby!” She waved before she skipped away.
Roman started snickering again and this time was kicked by Cinder. “Ow! Jesus! What the fu-”
Another kick. Neo was the culprit this time, judging by the fact she also stole the ice cream away. Romans started to sulk. “Can't cuss, can't poke fun at weird little girls-”
Roman had to draw his legs back to avoid getting kicked by three feet this time. “Okay, okay, I'll be good!”
Ruby sat back down, watching Penny's bright pink bow vanish down the sidewalk. “I dunno. I thought she was actually kinda fun.”
Too bad she'd never see her again.
~***~
“You miss me, Cinder?”
“As much as I miss a headache.”
Sun spread his arms out. “She didn't say migraine this time, you hear that? I've improved!”
Blake managed to smile. “It's because Roman's the migraine.” Although Roman wasn't in earshot, clearly Neo was, as she poked her head from the kitchen to glare.
Cinder walked in and looked at her phone again. “We have one more person saying they're interested in joining, I tried to tell them we're in the middle of a campaign but they insisted. That means we're not starting early tonight.”
“Awwww!” Yang flopped over the table. “So excited to see the Vytal Festival though.”
Weiss glanced at her phone. “It's 5:59, it's close enough, isn't it-”
Several well timed taps on the door the moment the clock flipped over to six. “Right on time. If only that could happen every night.” Cinder sighed and got up, walking to the door. A very familiar voice came in from the front door.
“Salutations, Miss Cinder! I am here on time, with my character sheets. Is this the right address?”
Yang chose a bad time to take a swig of her root beer as she ended up squirting it out her nose. “Is that who I think-”
A surprised Cinder walked in with Penny trailing behind, the cheery girl getting even cheerier when seeing Ruby. “Hello, Ruby!”
“Penny! Wow! How… how did you find my game night?” Ruby was floored. Not saying she didn't like Penny, but this was a little shocking, to say the least.
Penny cocked her head to the side. “Miss Cinder places it on the Remnant website. I read all the rules, and the game seemed so much fun! Here, Miss Cinder, my character sheets!” She produced crisp sheets from her bag. Cinder took them and glanced them over, changing from flabbergasted to actually quite interested.
She handed them back. “Interesting… who helped you make them?”
“Oh, no one helped me, Miss Cinder. Once you find out the rules, it's actually quite simple to make a character sheet! I also read that I should read out some character details before the game starts?”
Cinder nodded. “You came prepared. Well?”
Penny cleared her throat.
“My character is Penny Polendina! Her weapon is multiple swords controlled by nearly invisible strings. She loves others but knows they do not always understand her. Her weakness is her lack of human interaction, and her secret?” Penny looked so proud of this part. “She's an android!” She looked around the room, looking for reactions.
Ruby couldn't hide hers- she squealed a bit and bounced up and down in her chair. “An android character?! So! Cool! I didn't know that was even an option!”
“It is with the new version from six months ago, like faunus and human. I made sure.” Penny beamed with pride.
Cinder seemed to think for a little bit. “All right, I'll give you the cue as for a good time to hop into the campaign, Penny, all right?”
“That sounds perfect to me.”
~***~
“Do you… wanna get up?”
“Yes! My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!”